Let´s take a closer look at how Storj is planning to accomplish each one of
these goals.

Developers build applications
When you download the latest cat picture sharing app, most likely you won’t
know or care about where the application data is actually being stored.
Developers make the decision on data storage for the many applications their
users rely on. Traditionally, developers have predominantly used centralized
cloud storage options on platforms such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and
Microsoft Azure.

We are building Storj to be a better data storage option for developers’
applications than traditional centralized cloud storage solutions. Some of the
main benefits are:

User/device
encryption by default - Traditional cloud storage can be compromised
by hacking the cloud storage provider’s servers or by exposing the
developers’ keys. In contrast, data stored on Storj is encrypted/decrypted
on the user’s own device. No one else should have access to the data for
the application to function, other than the user.

Increased
performance - Storj operates on a P2P network allowing users to
connect to multiple peers, so files can be stored and retrieved faster on
this distributed network than would be possible using the traditional
nearest data center.

More
uptime - Because Storj is a distributed and decentralized network,
there is no central point of failure like in traditional centralized cloud
storage networks. This means more access to your data when you want it.

Better
prices - Storj doesn’t have to build a $600M data center to serve
users. Instead, we use excess storage resources from real people like you
and me. This means savings for developers, which they can pass on to the
user or use to build better features.

Better
privacy - Storj operates a zero-knowledge system which does not need
to know anything about the data stored on the network in order to be able
to operate. This means the USER’s data stays private, and properly built
applications can take advantage of this as well.

Open
source and free software - We believe our code should be open so it
can be verified, and developers can modify it to fit the problems they are
trying to solve.

These are just some points that make Storj a better option than the
traditional cloud.

The first step is to make Storj easy to integrate and use for developer
applications. This makes developers’ lives easier, and allows them to pass
along the cost savings, security, privacy, and performance features to their
users.

Connect the apps, with users in control
If you store your pictures on something like Dropbox, can you then download
them again from your iCloud photos app? Well the answer is no, because Dropbox
controls that information. We want to put the control back in the user’s hands.
Imagine a world where you can store your data in one of your applications, and
retrieve that same data from any of your other applications at your discretion.
That’s the power of a unified storage layer with the users in control. Even
with information sharing between applications, the process is very secure
because the data is encrypted with keys only the user controls. Plus, only the
user can approve information sharing between applications.

Now a good question would be: “Why would applications give up their current
control of user data?” While this practice would keep users inside their
application and nowhere else, the answer is pretty simple: user base. Consider
an App 1 with features A and B, App 2 with features C and D, and App 3 with
features A and E. They each have a user base of 5,000 users. App 1 and App 2
implement Storj as their backend and use its standards for storage, user
accounts, and authentication. Now all their combined 10,000 users have access
to features A, B, C and D in both applications with minimal effort. App 3 just
can’t compete with the combined user base and features of Apps 1 and 2.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it already exists in some closed
personal cloud implementations like iCloud and Google Drive. Unfortunately,
Apple and Google control access to this data, when it should be the users
themselves instead.

Connect renters and farmers, creating a self-sustaining ecosystemRenters pay farmers in SJCX to store their data in the network. Farmers
will use SJCX to cover their costs, and it will also be used in various ways to
support/organize the network and prevent spam. We envision that as the network
progresses, applications will support direct usage of SJCX, making it easier
for farmers to spend their SJCX. This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem where
SJCX is recycled back into the network instead of being sold.

Since the only source of farmer’s income is through renters, we also
envision farmers working closer with renters to increase the amount of data and
data usage in the network. For example, if a renter uploads a series of very
popular files, some farmers might even pay that renter to ensure they get an
early copy of the data, as they will earn much more money from the many users
that will request to download that data soon after. Another example could be
farmers cooperating with renters to promote data downloads to third parties, as
getting more views for the renters’ content results in more income for the
farmers. This would be a special use case and not the rule, but because Storj
is an incentivized open market, farmers and renters are free to work together
in unique ways. This collaboration can open up some novel methods of content
distribution.

Automate everything, and remove the human
Unfortunately, humans are usually the weakness of any system. People make
mistakes, so we must replace them with public, auditable, and transparent systems
that function logically. With the advent of Bitcoin and blockchain technology
we finally have a great example of how to build these systems. While public,
auditable, and transparent systems are great, they rarely scale easily. For
example, Bitcoin can only handle five to seven transactions per second, while
the centralized VISA system can handle an average of 2,000 transactions per
second. However, there are some ideas on how this could be solved, but there is still lots of work
left to do.

We want to automate as much of the Storj network as we can and rely on
trustless technologies as much as possible. This will take time, and while it
may be impossible to make any system fully trustless, we will try to get it as
close as we can. The litmus test is that the entire Storj team should be able
to take a trip to the Moon (where internet connectivity is lacking), and the
network should still continue to function and thrive. This is actually already
implemented now, as it is still possible to retrieve data from the underlying
P2P network even with the Storj Labs Inc. bridge services offline, as long as
the application has the extra logic to handle that case.

Other than just automating to ensure better privacy, security, and
robustness, we need to accommodate future use cases. Right now we assume that
you are a human signing up for the service. Going forward, we might need to be
more open minded. For example, in the future your smart fridge is not going to
be able to swipe a credit card to pay its data needs. It should be able to
create an account on Storj, and use that storage space without human
interaction. As long as the smart fridge pays like the rest of us (though
cryptocurrency), everything should be fine. This automation will enable Storj
to be used for Distributed Autonomous Organizations and IoT.

We should always remember that Storj was named after thefuturistic StorJ conceptby Bitcoin Core developer Gregory
Maxwell. He described a vision of a cloud storage system that was run by many
trustless autonomous AIs. This sparked the vision and name that is Storj today.
We want that future now, but we understand that we will get there one building
block at a time.

So let´s recap how Storj will be building the next generation storage
platform for the web:

Developers
build apps using Storj as the data layer.

Connect
the apps on a marketplace, with users in control.

Use
cryptocurrency to create a self-sustaining ecosystem with market
efficiencies.

Transition
to a fully automated and trustless system, which will form the base layer
for IoT and decentralized autonomous organizations.